Operational Offshore Wind Farms

​Welcoming the newest addition to our
offshore wind farm fleet...

Burbo Bank Extension

Leading the way to a greener future.

Less than ten years ago at Burbo Bank, we were the first to install a 3.6 MW wind turbine. This year, we installed MHI Vestas V164 -8.0 MW turbines which are the world's largest wind turbines at Burbo Bank Extension. In this short time the turbines have more than doubled in power output, and the new windfarm will provide sustainable energy to over
230,000 UK homes. The future is green.

Made in the UK

Photo credit: MHI Vestas Offshore WindThese blades measuring 80 meters in length are the first locally built blades to be installed at a UK offshore wind farm. They have been designed, tested, and manufactured on the Isle of Wight and assembled at MHI Vestas' facility in Belfast.

Fact: The blades are equivalent to 9 double decker buses in length.

Harnessing energy from the sea

This is Burbo Bank Extension's offshore substation (OSS). The purpose of this structure is to transform the power supplied from the individual turbines and prepare it for export to the onshore grid via subsea cables.

Fact: This offshore substation weighs as much as 1500 typical cars.

World-first technology

Standing at 195 meters (taller than the Gherkin in London which is 180 meters), the MHI Vestas V164 - 8.0MW turbines are the largest in the world. This offshore wind farm covers 40m2, has 32 turbines, and generates a total of 258MW.

Fact: Just one of these wind turbines produces more energy than the whole of Vindeby, the world's first offshore wind farm.

Power for the future

This offshore wind farm is expected to be operational for around 25 years. Approximately 45 full time employees will work on both Burbo wind farms out of a newly built operation and maintenance facility in Liverpool.

Fact: 2.3 million hours have been spent in construction of Burbo Bank Extension.

"The installation of this world-first technology shows DONG Energy
is really leading the way in offshore wind energy."(on the installation of the 8MW turbines)

- Claus Bøjle MøllerBurbo Bank Extension Project Director

​

Caring about the community

Our community giving, engagement and sponsorship is focused on the regions in which we operate.

For the Burbo Bank Extension project, we have partnered with
Grantscape to develop a community benefit fund worth approximately £225,000 per year which will be available for local projects for the expected 25 year lifetime of the project.

Barrow Offshore Wind Farm is located in the East Irish Sea approximately 7km south west of Walney Island, near Barrow-in-Furness.

Electricity generated by the wind farm is delivered to the National Grid at a substation in Heysham, Lancashire via 27km of buried subsea transmission and onshore cables.

Construction and commissioning work was completed in June 2006, a little over a year after offshore work got underway in the East Irish Sea. First power was generated in March 2006. DONG Energy’s team of technicians and project staff operate the wind farm from an operations and maintenance (O&M) base in Barrow-in-Furness.

Environmental information about the project is available via the links on the right, and you can visit Centrica’s website
here.

Number of turbines: 25Generation capacity: 90MWCommercial operation: 2007Owner of the project: DONG Energy

The Burbo Bank offshore wind farm is situated on the Burbo Flats in Liverpool Bay at the entrance to the River Mersey, approximately 6.4km (4.0 miles) from the Sefton coastline and 7.2km (4.5 miles) from North Wirral.

Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm is located approximately 7km south-east of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.

The project consists of two phases, Gunfleet Sands 1 with 30 turbines and Gunfleet Sands 2 with 18 turbines. The total area covered is 17.5km2.

The capacity of each turbine is 3.6 MW, giving a total capacity of the Gunfleet Sands project of 173 MW. The total area of the phase 1 development is 10km2 and 7.5km2 for phase 2.

The wind farm was constructed by DONG Energy, and is owned by DONG Energy (50.1%), Marubeni (24.95%) and DBJ (24.95%)

Demonstration Project

In 2013, a demonstration project was completed at Gunfleet sands to test two of Siemens' 6MW. At the time these were the biggest offshore wind turbines in the world. They were subsequently deployed at Westermost Rough offshore wind farm, inaugurated July 2015, and more offshore wind farms besides. They are still the biggest commericially deployed and currently operational turbines.

Operation & Maintenance

Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm is operated and maintained from the town of Brightlingsea only 35 minutes away by vessel.

DONG Energy has built their operation base in Brightlingsea and recruit staff locally, thus committing to a long-term relationship with Brightlingsea.

The offshore wind farm is situated 8km off the Yorkshire Coast, north of Hull.

The project marks the first commercial deployment of the Siemens 6MW turbine with a 154m rotor span. The 35 turbines are 177m tall from sea level to the highest reach of the blade tips, which is taller than the Humber Bridge.

Operations & Maintenance

Following commercial completion of Westermost Rough in September 2015, the operations and maintenance team are based out of facilities at the Royal Dock in Grimsby where they will manage the upkeep of the project for its 25 year lifetime.

Construction of the new offices and warehouse began in January 2014 and was completed at the end of the same year. Around 100 employees are based at the Grimsby site offices, which also has new pontoon access for three crew transfer vessels.

West of Duddon sands produces enough electricity to power over 340,000 UK homes annually.

Number of turbines: 108Generation capacity: 389MWCommercial operation: 2014Owner of the project: DONG Energy

The West of Duddon Sands Offshore Wind Farm is located in the East Irish Sea approximately 14km from the nearest coast on Walney Island, Cumbria. It is situated in the vicinity of nearby wind farms: Barrow, Ormonde and Walney.

The wind farm has an attractive offshore location with excellent wind resources, favourable water depths and grid access relatively close to the shore. The short onshore distance to the grid makes this area particularly suitable for development, construction and operation of an offshore wind farm.

In addition to the site's windy location, the wave and tidal conditions in the East Irish Sea are complex with a tidal difference of 10.2m.

West of Duddon Sands was officially opened by Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey in October 2014. The construction work included installation of foundations, wind turbines, export and array cables, offshore and onshore substations, grid connection and O&M facilities.